Rhapsody Resource Page



System Requirements for Rhapsody For most people, the hardest thing about Rhapsody is getting started. The question: "What will it run on?" is one of the most asked questions I get. On this page I'll break down what I know by version and hardware platform. Rhapsody 5.0 PowerPC Rhapsody 5.1 PowerPC Rhapsody 5.3 - 5.5 PowerPC Rhapsody 5.6 PowerPC Rhapsody 5.0 Intel Rhapsody 5.1 Intel Rhapsody 5.0 for PowerPC From what I can tell (I haven't used Rhapsody 5.0), the stated requirements in the manual are guaranteed to work (which, one would assume). So it should work on the following systems without issue: Power Macintosh 8500 Power Macintosh 9500 Power Macintosh 8600 Power Macintosh 9600 Rhapsody will only see one processor on multiprocessor systems. The RAM requirements for 5.0 are: At least 32 MB (recommended 48 MB) Maximum of 512 MB (from reports, not actual experience) As for video, the internal Apple video system on the 8500/8600 should work fine, and Apple-supplied IMS or ATI video card in the 9500/9600 should work. As for unsupported hardware, The one I'm willing to bet on would be a Power Macintosh 7500 with a 604/604e processor card (replacing the stock 601 processor card). Apple has 120 MHz listed as the lowest speed for Rhapsody, which should coincide with the lowest speed processor card you can get that'll work in a 7500. Rhapsody 5.0 wasn't designed for G3 processors. It doesn't see them as G3 (750) processors, it thinks they are 603e processors (the processor the G3 was based on). Because of this, Rhapsody doesn't see or use the the cache of a G3 (which is what Makes the G3 so fast to begin with). Unaltered, Rhapsody runs as fast on a G3 as it would on the same speed 603e. Apple did release a patch (here) for G3 processors which help out quite a bit. Given that, Rhapsody 5.0 should work on Beige G3 hardware (tower, desktop, all-in-one). Rhapsody 5.1 for PowerPC Again, the stated requirements in the manual are pretty much guaranteed to work. So it should work on the following systems without issue: Power Macintosh 8500 Power Macintosh 9500 Power Macintosh 8600 Power Macintosh 9600 Rhapsody will only see one processor on multiprocessor systems. The RAM requirements for 5.1 are: At least 32 MB (recommended 48 MB) Maximum of 192 MB (with reports of 224, not based on experience) As for video, the internal Apple video system on the 8500/8600 should work fine, and Apple-supplied IMS or ATI video card in the 9500/9600 should work. As for unsupported hardware, I have run Rhapsody 5.1 on a Power Macintosh 7500 with a 604e processor card (at 210 MHz). Apple has 132 MHz listed as the lowest speed that Rhapsody 5.1, but I have heard of people successfully installing on 120 MHz systems. I've heard that it'll run on 7600 and 7300 systems unaltered, but I have no conformation of that. Rhapsody 5.1 wasn't designed for G3 processors. It doesn't see them as G3 (750) processors, it thinks they are 603e processors (the processor the G3 was based on). Because of this, Rhapsody doesn't see or use the the cache of a G3 (which is what Makes the G3 so fast to begin with). Unaltered, Rhapsody runs as fast on a G3 as it would on the same speed 603e. Apple did release a patch (here) for G3 processors which help out quite a bit. Given that, Rhapsody 5.1 should work on Beige G3 hardware (tower, desktop, all-in-one). Rhapsody 5.1 is not supported on PowerBooks. That being said, it does run on them. The PowerBooks I have heard will work are: PowerBook 3400 PowerBook 2400 PowerBook G3 (3500, Kanga form factor) As with desktop G3s, the Kanga needs to be patched. All three of these PowerBooks are based on the same logic board design, which is why they all work. For a detailed look at installing on a PowerBook 3400, check out this article. Rhapsody 5.3 - 5.5 for PowerPC Rhapsody 5.3 (Mac OS X Server 1.0) and it's subsequent updates 5.4 and 5.5 (Server 1.0.1 and 1.0.2) all run on the same hardware (seeing as they all have to start out as Rhapsody 5.3). Again, the stated requirements in the manual are pretty much guaranteed to work, but in this case I'll go from the pre-release requirements. So it should work on the following systems without issue: Power Macintosh 7300 Power Macintosh 8600 Power Macintosh 9600 Power Macintosh G3 (server, tower, desktop, all-in-one) Power Macintosh G3 (Blue & White -server and desktop) Rhapsody will only see one processor on multiprocessor systems. The RAM requirements for 5.3 - 5.5 are: At least 32 MB (recommended 64 MB) Maximum of 1024 MB As for video, the internal Apple video system on the 8500/8600 should work fine, and Apple-supplied IMS or ATI video card in the 9500/9600 should work. As for unsupported hardware, I have run Rhapsody 5.x on a Power Macintosh 7500 with a 604e processor card (at 210 MHz). I would guess that at least a 132 MHz processor is the lowest speed that Rhapsody 5.3 can run on, but I have heard of people successfully installing on 120 MHz systems. I've heard that it'll run on 7600, 8500, 9500 systems unaltered. The same seems to be true for iMacs at least up to the 500 MHz model. Stepwise has a nice page on unsupported hardware here. Rhapsody 5.3 -5.5 wasn't designed for G4 processors. It won't install on those systems that came with G4 processors. Rhapsody 5.3 -5.5 is not supported on PowerBooks. That being said, it does run on them (very nicely). The PowerBooks I have heard will work are: PowerBook 3400 PowerBook 2400 PowerBook G3 (3500, Kanga form factor) PowerBook G3 series (Wallstreet) PowerBook G3 (Lombard) The PowerBook G3 2000 (Pismo) is beyond what Rhapsody can handle, even with Rhapsody 5.6. Rhapsody 5.6 for PowerPC Rhapsody 5.6 (Mac OS X Server 1.2 and 1.2v3) runs on the same hardware as Rhapsody 5.3 - 5.5. Again, the stated requirements in the manual are pretty much guaranteed to work, but in this case I'll go from the pre-release requirements for 5.3. So it should work on the following systems without issue: Power Macintosh 7300 Power Macintosh 8600 Power Macintosh 9600 Power Macintosh G3 (server, tower, desktop, all-in-one) Power Macintosh G3 (Blue & White -server and desktop) Power Mac G4 (PCI & AGP graphics) Power Mac G4 (Gigabit Ethernet) eMac (original model) Rhapsody will only see one processor on multiprocessor systems. The RAM requirements for 5.6 are: At least 64 MB Maximum of 1536 MB (1.5 GB) As for video, the internal Apple video system on the 8500/8600 should work fine, and Apple-supplied IMS or ATI video cards in the 9500/9600 should work. Both the ATI Rage 128 PCI and AGP cards are supported. I have heard of other cards working, but nothing I can point to. As for unsupported hardware, I have run Rhapsody 5.x on a Power Macintosh 7500 with a 604e processor card (at 210 MHz), including a current installation of Rhapsody 5.6. I would guess that at least a 132 MHz processor is the lowest speed that Rhapsody 5.6 can run on, but I have heard of people successfully installing on 120 MHz systems. I've heard that it'll run on 7600, 8500, 9500 systems unaltered. The same seems to be true for iMacs at least up to the 500 MHz model. Rhapsody 5.6 was designed for both G3 and G4 processors. It won't see more than one processor though. Rhapsody 5.6 is not supported on PowerBooks. That being said, it does run on them (very nicely). The PowerBooks I have heard will work are: PowerBook 3400 PowerBook 2400 PowerBook G3 (3500, Kanga form factor) PowerBook G3 series (Wallstreet) PowerBook G3 (Lombard) Clamshell iBook G3 The PowerBook G3 2000 (Pismo) is beyond what Rhapsody can handle. Rhapsody 5.0 for Intel This release of Rhapsody was based largely on OPENSTEP. Given that, I would expect it to run on the same hardware that OPENSTEP 4.2 would run on. The OPENSTEP system requirements and driver support list can be found here. Rhapsody 5.1 for Intel Basically, you can run it on what ever hardware you have drivers for. Given that, the Rhapsody 5.1 system requirements and driver support list can be found here. From practical experience, I have run 5.1 on an IBM ThinkPad 760 ED (with no sound support), a Digital Celebris XL5133 and in VirtualPC for the Mac OS (versions 3.x, 4.x and 5.x) in Mac OS 8.6, 9.x.x, and 10.1.3 and later. My ThinkPad is my primary mobile Rhapsody system (though it was replaced for a while when I was running Rhapsody 5.6 for PowerPC on my PowerBook G3). It is basically stock (with the addition of a 3Com EtherLink III PCMCIA card for networking). It currently has a Pentium processor at 133 MHz, 80 MB of RAM and a 6 GB hard drive. Sadly, today, getting Rhapsody working is mainly trial and error. Unless you look for systems from before 2000, you are likely to encounter some form of problems. Final thoughts... Rhapsody systems are not that expensive. My ThinkPad is worth under $100US on ebay these days. I just found an 8600 (with a 604ev at 300MHz) for a client at $99US which would be the perfect Rhapsody system. Considering the large numbers of systems that will work (and the low cost of them), I find it hard to understand why so many people are upset when Rhapsody doesn't run on todays hardware. Apple stopped shipping Rhapsody for PowerPC in 2001. They stopped shipping Rhapsody for Intel in 1998. Trying to get Rhapsody to run on current hardware (Mac or PC) is like trying to push a square peg through a round hole... sort of a waste of effort. Worse, it keeps those people from seeing Rhapsody in any form actually functioning.